Volodymyr Zelensky made the remark in an interview with US broadcaster CNN late on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian president said: “This is tactical for us,” adding that Kyiv’s military brass was united in believing that “we have to stand strong in Bakhmut,” amid Russia’s nine-month assault.
Zelensky said via video link from Kyiv: “We understand that after Bakhmut they could go further. They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction.”
“That’s why our guys are standing there,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians remained in Bakhmut, including 38 children, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
Before the war, the city had an estimated population of about 70,000, according to news outlets.
Russian losses in Bakhmut five times higher than Ukraine’s: NATO
Bakhmut has been the focus of fierce fighting in the eastern Donbas region, with Russia having sustained “20,000 to 30,000 casualties’’ killed and wounded in trying to seize control of the city, Western officials estimated at a news conference on Tuesday, The Guardian reported.
They added that Ukrainian losses were “significantly less.”
Ukraine’s defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russian forces to engage in a costly fight for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically,” the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, has said.
According to NATO intelligence, for every Ukrainian soldier killed defending Bakhmut, Russian troops have lost at least five, broadcaster CNN has reported.
Pro-Ukraine group behind attack on Nord Stream pipelines?
Intelligence reviewed by US officials suggests that the 2022 attack on the Nord Stream pipelines—which were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea—was conducted by a pro-Ukrainian group, The New York Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.
There is “no evidence President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine or his top lieutenants were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials,” the NYT said, citing US officials.
Wednesday is day 378 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: CNN, The Guardian, understandingwar.org, The New York Times